Autos

Collision warning system getting a test

All you have to do is point the wheel in the direction you need to go and ample warning will be given if you are about to hit another car or if another car is about to hit you along the way.

Soon, those who repair car bodies will find themselves playing cards with typewriter repairmen.

General Motors has a fleet of Cadillac CTS and DTS sedans testing this new safety system called Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication in which cars talk to each other.

Equipped with special sensors, a GPS receiver and transponder, and a special radio frequency, cars can send or receive messages among themselves. Cars with V2V will be able to calculate the potential for a collision and let all the other cars around them know an impact is about to happen unless they do something to stop it.

Motorists could receive a visual warning in a gauge on the dash or an audible warning from the radio when any vehicle in the lane ahead of them either brakes hard or stops, a vehicle is approaching too fast in the same lane from the rear, or when a vehicle alongside has entered a vehicle's blind spot.

Cadillac, Acura, Mercedes and Infiniti have adaptive cruise control systems that use radar to detect when you are getting too close to the vehicle ahead. If so, there's a visual and/or audible warning that you should brake, or the car will start to apply the brakes and reduce engine speed to reduce the chances for a collision.

The difference between those systems and GM's V2V system is that GM's works anytime at any speed, not just when you are traveling with the cruise control on. And the radar used in adaptive cruise control can be fooled by heavy fog, rain or snow, said Bob Lange, executive director of GM's vehicle structure and safety integration. Radio frequencies and GPS satellites aren't.

"It's a 360-degree system that detects events front, rear and along both sides," said Lange, unlike adaptive cruise control, which works only in the front. "The system tells other vehicles that I'm traveling in a specific direction at a specific speed and warns the driver of a threat before he can actually see it.

"For example, you are traveling at speed over a hill and my car is stalled at the bottom of that hill. My car will send your car a message via your radio or blinking light in the dash that I'm in your path and will warn you to stop."

It also will apply brakes if you fail to slow down.

GM is also considering "haptic warnings," having the steering wheel or seat cushion vibrate to alert the driver of a potential collision. The haptic warning could be so sophisticated that the right side of the seat would vibrate if a vehicle is approaching from the right, the left side of the seat if approaching from the left.

The system sounds like it has merits, though one of the drawbacks is that it won't help avoid run-ins with Fords, Chryslers or Toyotas if it's only in GM cars.

"It would have to be common to all cars to be most effective, and we're now working on a partnership with other automakers to create a radio transponder that would work in any brand car," Lange said of a system that could be available in limited numbers by 2010 to 2012.

Though the system holds promise, Lange said GM is concerned how some consumers might react.

"We don't want to give the driver a false sense of security and don't want the driver to abdicate his responsibility for controlling the car," he said.

"This doesn't guarantee you won't hit another vehicle, though by applying the brakes it should mean less vehicle damage and less passenger injury."

Lange said the automaker also is trying to come up with a system that can be retrofitted to existing cars so more people would benefit.

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Read Jim Mateja on Sunday in Transportation and Wednesday and Friday in Business. Hear him on WBBM-AM 780 at 6:22 p.m. Wednesdays and 11:22 a.m. Sundays.